Calm Water
by RavenSara84
Summary: One-Shot to Shades of Grey. Youki has been having nightmares of the past battle, can Suigetsu help? And will he be healing a bit of himself in the process?


A little fic after the whole Shades of Grey story. Hard to believe it was a year and a month ago that I began to post it up here!

I don't own any of these characters from Naruto, I do own Youki.

_Blood._

_A pool of blood was spurting from the man's throat; his blue skin turning gray at the lack of it, the wound was ragged, as if a wild animal had attacked him, but the other wounds, the scares that covered him, told a different tale. _

_Everyone knew all too well that no animal would have gotten close, he was one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, a feared ninja who would kill anyone who even looked at him the wrong way. No one could have predicated his death would be at the hands of someone who had been in line to become one of the Seven, no one would have thought it possible that someone outside the Seven could kill him!_

_As he fell to the ground the dreamer looked over their shoulder, to see the one who had caused such an end to such a feared and well known ninja._

_White hair, amethyst eyes, with numerous wounds of his own; however the eyes were drawn to his bloody lips and to his blood coated fangs. He grinned manically at her, as he raised his sword and brought it down, slicing the dreamer in two._

_As they lay on the ground, which was already soaked in blood from Kisame, they thought over the whole battle; it surely didn't end this way? Surely they moved on to fight others and not each other?_

"_You're so pretty," He whispered into their ear; "No wonder my brother likes you," _

_With those words the dreamer awoke with a start._

Looking around herself the gray eyed seer sighed in relief.

_Just a nightmare, _She thought to herself as she rose from her bed, knowing full well that such a dream would stay within her mind for a good few hours before she could consider falling back to sleep, and even then she wouldn't want to.

The nightmare had faded slightly, she knew that, she knew that something was missing, but not sure what. Every time she tried to think it over she could feel a shiver come crawling up her spine and decided to just let it rest.

She looked from out the curtain and noticed that the sun was barely beginning to creep up on the horizon. Quiet, so as not to wake her room mate, she moved to the living room to get a book that Sai, a quiet boy who had a brilliant talent for art, gave her to read.

Sitting on the sofa, she looked at the cover, _A History of Art Nevou._

Not something that she would normally read, but it was the one to help her take her mind off the nightmare and she felt that she couldn't refuse a book from Sai, over the past few month's Ino had been trying had to help him understand people on a personal level, to be able to read them on whether he had insulted them or not.

She opened the page and curled up taking the blanket that she always left on the back of the sofa and wrapped it around herself.

Although she tried to focus on the book, she found her thoughts drifting. Only one person knew that she was plagued with nightmares since the battle, and that was Hinata. The Hyuuga princess had also had bad dreams following the battle against Madara, her's were more focused towards the wounded rather than the battle itself. Due to that the two had found themselves becoming close again after all the time that Youki had been away from the village.

Hinata had also suggested that she speak to Suigetsu about it, since he was the one who appeared to be ready to slice her in two in the nightmare and perhaps his words would sooth her.

"_I doubt he would fight you," The dark haired princess had told her softly._

Youki had wanted so much to believe those words, if just for a little while; _But he didn't fight me._ _I would be no match for him._

She didn't feel that she could talk to him, as everyone was always ready to point out to her, was that he was from the Mist and they enjoyed fighting more than any other ninja village. Suigetsu couldn't promise anything.

She tried to banish such thoughts from her head and re-focused on the book.

During the day Suigetsu and Youki trained, and went shopping for their food supplies. The Swordsman was no fool, he had noticed how tired she would appear during the day; he knew she got up early but it was only recently when he woke to go to the bathroom that he realized _how_ early she woke up.

While he had first put it down to traveling with the Uchiha since they _had_ to get up early to move ahead, but now he couldn't.

There were other things that he probably should have looked more closely to, like the fact that she flinched whenever he brought his sword out to train with Sai. He had spoken to the artist about it, but considering the other was only just beginning to figure out people's emotions, he wasn't that much of a help.

"_Ask her," _Was what he had advised, and although Suigetsu was still to do it, he had decided that when they had a moment together he would ask her.

So as he brought out two frozen yoghurts from the fridge, as well as two spoons, he walked back to the scarcely decorated living room. The two still remained where they had been placed by Tsuande when they first arrived in the village, they never felt a need to leave and they didn't need to decorate. All they needed was the basics, sofa, table, just the general comforts.

As he sat down on the sofa and carefully watched her out of the corner of his eye. She was still tired, eyelids dropped in the desire to sleep, but she refused to listen to her body's pleads.

"Bad sleep?" He asked casually and spotted her flinching, so he raised an eyebrow to show that he had seen it.

Youki cursed herself for being so obvious; "Just, bad dreams," She stated softly.

"More than just bad dreams," He stated and she looked at him in surprise. Suigetsu grinned as he continued; "I doubt you'd normally be like this if it was,"

She continued to look at him, not realizing that he had managed to figure out, at least part of her problem, but she remained silent, unsure if she could tell him the truth or how he would take the news. She laughed inside her head, being a Seer didn't really help _her_ too much, otherwise she would have seen the outcome of this.

"So, what is it?" Suigetsu continued to ask, still looking at her.

"Nightmares," She admitted, her gaze moved to a painting that Sai had given them while he was recovering from his injury, one of a golden koi in water, surrounded by lily pads, Youki normally found it rather relaxing to look at, but not in this instance. The she noticed that Suigetsu hadn't even begun to eat, and since it was his favorite food he would normally be on his second one by now.

"And?" He wasn't the most observant of ninja's, it was a trait that he and Naruto shared, but he would look out for his friends and figure it out himself. But this was affecting her and therefore it could affect everyone else who would have to work with her, if they had to do a mission she would be a risk. He knew that part was what the Mist had been drilled into him, but he also knew that she'd end up putting herself at risk too and he wouldn't let that happen.

Closing her eyes she took Hinata's advice now that she couldn't escape; "Kisame," She began and noticed his amethyst eyes narrowed; "I mean his death..."

Suigetsu carefully watched her, seeing so clearly all of the emotions that she was feeling about the nightmare, the actual event its self; anger, fear, sadness, helplessness, shock, all the bundles of emotions that she never told anyone about.

Watching all of the emotions tumble to the surface made him remember something else; how she hadn't been part of the village for so long. How she had never taken part of a mission that involved a killing, something of such an extreme that would always scar even the greatest of ninja's; and he had inadvertently made it worse when he finally managed to kill Kisame with his own teeth.

"It happens to everyone," He said quietly, looking at the tub of frozen yoghurt, although he briefly wondered how it came to _him_ being the one to give her advice rather than Hinata, but maybe this was fitting, given that he probably had been in more fights that had involved death than the rest of the Leaf Village.

She just looked at him once more, disbelieving.

"The first battle will always be the worst, no one really knows what to expect," He quoted his old teacher and then grinned; "You just have to snap out of it soon,"

"Are you saying that even the Mist...?" She smiled slightly at him.

"Yea," He admitted, finally eating his yoghurt quickly and moving back to the fridge to get another.

Once he was back and sitting next to her again did she ask her question;

"When did you...?"

He paused, savoring the yoghurt that he was eating as he pulled the spoon out of his mouth and looked thoughtful; "Long time ago. I was probably only... Seven, or eight," He never noticed her shock as he continued to eat.

_Mist, he was raised in the mist._ Youki had to remind herself as she looked at him, right now the face of innocence as he ate; but she knew all too well that the mask of a killer was underneath.

"Did it give you nightmares?" She asked, wondering if somehow asking such a question to a man who was born in the Mist Village.

Once again Suigetsu had to pause, he remembered all too clearly his first kill, the first time he learned how to commit murder. The first to send him on to the road to become a protege of murder, such a bloody kill that it had been was always in his mind; it was one of the reasons why he had tried to perfect the art, to become a Swordsman of the Mist.

_Did it give you nightmares?_ How he wanted to laugh at that question, but he couldn't; had he still been part of the Mist he would have, but not now, not while he was now in the Leaf Village.

"Yea, yea, it did," He finally admitted out loud.

Closing his eyes, he tried to figure out what he was feeling after admitting such a thing when so much time had passed. He felt more of a weight lifted off his shoulder's, and then he felt arms wrap around him.

Youki rested her head on his shoulder as she held him; knowing that admitting something like that wasn't common among the Mist people.

"Thank you," She whispered into his ear.

He was unsure why she thanked him, just turned around and hugged her properly, feeling her relax in his arms. Looking down Suigetsu noticed that she had fallen asleep; to which he gently laid her down on the sofa and then looked over to her barely eaten frozen yoghurt.

_Would she be mad at him for eating it?_ He thought to himself; _I'm sure she'll forgive me._


End file.
